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Lang College Offers Academic Credit for Taking a Gap Year

Sometimes, after a hectic high school experience overshadowed by a competitive — or perhaps, disappointing — college admissions process, seniors just need a break.

The idea of a gap year between high school and college could be tempting to students who are not ready to transition to the next level of education. And there are many ways to fill the deferred freshman year. You could travel. Get a job. Pursue a passion that has nothing to do with your professional or academic aspirations. You could breathe.

What’s to stop a student from taking such a hiatus? Society, for one. In the United States, the competitive college admissions culture could make the thought of benching yourself for a year seem unthinkable. You’ll be a year behind your peers. Or, you may lose your interest in ever going back to school.

But at least one college would argue that students who take a gap year are at an academic advantage. In fact, this college is so enamored by the life experiences that these students bring to campus that it is offering academic credit for taking a gap year.

Instead of stepping on campus as year-behind freshmen, participants would arrive as newly minted sophomores.

Eugene Lang College for Liberal Arts, part of the New School, is starting a partnership with Global Citizen Year, a formal gap-year program that lets students spend a full school year in a developing country. Students who are admitted to Lang and accepted into Global Citizen Year will earn 30 college credits as they work to support development projects in other countries.

Giving Credit for ‘Worthy Learning Experiences’

During their seven-month stay with a local family, the students work as English teachers, peer mentors, or otherwise put their technical skills to work to better the local community.

It’s more of a “freshman year abroad,” or a “bridge year,” than a gap year, said Stephanie Browner, a dean at Lang College. Ms. Browner will oversee the three freshmen who will participate in the first year of the partnership, assigning them course work to fulfill class requirements that are supplemental to their tasks as members of Global Citizen Year.

“There are a lot of worthy learning experiences in life but we don’t give academic credit for them,” Ms. Browner said. “I think this is the right way to launch yourself into college.”

Interested students must be admitted into both programs in order to participate. Lang and Global Citizen conducted separate admissions processes.

“This will count as their seminar,” Ms. Browner said, “and this will also count as one of the freshman writing classes.”

Gap-year students often return proficient or fluent in a foreign language, said Abby Falik, the founder of Global Citizen Year. As they learn about poverty and development of third-world countries, they also develop “a sense of themselves in a way that is so profound,” she said.

“It’s a tradition that’s been long-held in other parts of the world,” Ms. Falik said. “We sort of fly by that transition in the United States. And we sort of think that the best solution is to go from school to more school.”

Ms. Falik hopes that Lang will be the first of many colleges to partner with Global Citizen Year. She ultimately aims for the gap-year program to attract the wide appeal that Teach for America has enjoyed, and that it will improve college campuses around the country.

“These students develop a maturity, a purpose, a focus,” Ms. Falik said. “They change the dynamic of the freshman dorm. They change the tenor of the conversation in the classroom.”

‘More Profound’ Than Study Abroad

Peter Saudek, of Lexington, Mass., did not know what he wanted to study after high school. He thought about taking a gap year, but not before considering some fears.

He worried that he would “lose a step academically, or that I would fall behind in my career,” he said. “That was stemmed from some of the pressure I experienced in high school. The majority of my peers went straight to college.”

His fears were relieved when he talked to alumni from his high school. The feedback from former classmates who took a gap year, he said, was “positive across the board.” The others who didn’t take a gap year, he said, wished they had.

So in 2010, Mr. Saudek joined Global Citizen Year and moved to Ecuador. He had already applied to college, knowing that he could defer his acceptance offer for a year. In Ecuador, Mr. Saudek volunteered with a government program to teach computer skills to elementary and middle school children in rural areas. He now attends Oberlin College, which was not where he planned to enroll before his year abroad.

“When I returned to college, I had a greater focus academically and increased curiosity,” Mr. Saudek said. “And I had a greater cognizance of my purpose for being in college. I was also emotionally more mature.”

Alan DeLeon hopes to have similar outcomes. The 18-year-old is one of the three freshmen who will participate in the pilot year of the partnership between Lang College and Global Citizen Year.

Mr. DeLeon is leaving his mother and 10-year-old brother behind in Houston to spend his freshman year abroad. Aside from visiting family in Mexico, Mr. DeLeon has never traveled outside of the United States. Now he is spending a full academic year in Brazil, without breaks to return to his family on weekends and holidays.

“The only thing that I want is to be challenged. I think this is a lot more profound than anything I could’ve done during a study-abroad experience,” he said. “There’s a lot to see in the world. People forget that you only live once.”

Mr. Saudek did not have the benefit of receiving college credit, but he said he was happy to step on a college campus a full two years after he began his college search.

“I think sometimes we have a tendency to romanticize our bridge year. During my year I realized some of the most difficult moments of my life, and it was necessary to my development,” he said.

“I certainly don’t feel a year behind. At times, I feel a year ahead.”

We’d like to hear your thoughts about gap-year programs. Please join the discussion in the comments box below.

I know of several good schools that encourage gap years for admitted students. This sounds like a very interesting and unique opportunity that goes beyond the standard gap year. Of course, just how good a deal it is for students would depend a lot on the costs involved.

Dean Browner said the experience would count as a “seminar” and a “freshman writing class”, and that she will oversee the students and assign them class work. That being the case, will they charge full tuition for the 30 credits?

Do the students pay anything to Global Citizen Year? If so, is that cost comparable to standard room and board charges at Lang?

And finally, does Lang’s financial aid cover any or all of the costs? Many schools do apply financial aid to study abroad programs.

I think the answers to these questions would go a long way toward determining whether a student of medium or modest means would be able to participate in this intriguing program.

A program like this certainly is more of a “bridge year” than anything; the students get the opportunity to learn and work outside of the classroom for a whole year, but come back to school as sophomores, without feeling like they have fallen behind their peers. It’s wonderful that Lang is so progressive in their vision of higher education.

My understanding is that students pay normal tuition and receive their individual aid for attending Lang College, but have this option to partake in Global Citizen Year as an alternative to a regular Freshman year; a great way to incorporate the bridge year into the cost of the four year university.

This is a unique opportunity indeed, but someday soon it may be the norm rather than the exception.